RV Review: Cherokee Alpha Wolf 26DBH-L travel trailer

As I write this we are celebrating my wife’s grandmother’s 99th birthday. The higher these birthday numbers get, the more people travel in from all parts of the U.S. to join the celebration. In this case, we’re sharing a vacation rental with what feels like hundreds of people, but it’s really not. 

My point in this is that there were a lot of folks in a small space which would probably approximate the feel of being in the 2022 Forest River Alpha Wolf 26DBH-L travel trailer with all the potential ten sleeping spaces occupied. 

I can just imagine all ten potential bed spaces occupied on a rainy night with plenty of youngsters. It would be similar to what it’s like where I’m writing this from, except there are 25 adults here and quite a few very young children. I guess I can write in any environment. 

This is one of those floor plans that, when I was selling RVs, we literally couldn’t keep in stock. And that was before every RV became like the last slice of cheesecake on a deserted island in terms of popularity. 

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Cherokee stuff

There have been things about the Cherokee and its Alpha Wolf brands that you can either love or leave, depending on your perspective. 

One of those is the looooooooong drawers that are under the dinette. These were always popular with customers when I would ask them to pull out the drawers. “Keep pulling, keep pulling.” The amount of usable space here is impressive. Definitely a plus. 

I also like that these do not come with a television. So many times I see folks replacing the TV that came with their RV shortly after buying it. It seems like a waste of money and unnecessary garbage. I think just letting the customer decide is better. 

If I could convince the RV industry to ship products without mattresses, we’d really be talking. 

People make fun of RVs with cabinets that feature pictures of wood papered onto lower-quality wood. But that also helps lower the cost of these things. If you take care of them they’ll last but, yeah, solid wood is better, of course. 

There’s an electric fireplace in most of these trailers, which I’ve seen some people criticize. I like these because it lets you heat the camper in shoulder season using the power that you’ve paid for already. It also adds some ambiance. 

Cherokees also feature ice makers and outdoor kitchens. The ice makers were a really popular feature. 

Another thing I pointed out to customers was the fact that these also have high-performance vent fans, which is unusual in this price point. 

Something else that I really like is that this comes with the backup camera which works with the Lippert OneControl system that’s also installed. It’s unusual for a rig in this price range to include that. 

Particulars in the Cherokee Alpha Wolf 26DBH-L

In this model, one of the things I do not like is the TV mount that is included is not an articulated mount. That means you’ll be calling your chiropractor unless you upgrade the mount. 

There’s also a door to the bathroom so you can jump in there without having to wander through the camper. However, I don’t know whose idea it was to put a window in the bathroom door but not any sort of privacy curtain. This is ready for a thin shade and they should install that on the bathroom, at the very least. 

The Cherokee Alpha Wolf 26DBH-L is very travel friendly, so you can fully access all the features even with the slide room closed. That’s nifty. 

There’s also a cargo bay on the road side which happens to be under the rear bunk of the trailer. It’s a decent-sized space, but the pass-through storage is really where this shines with plenty of space there. 

In summary

This is a decent package of usability and features at an affordable price. As mentioned, we simply couldn’t keep these in stock even before all this camper craze started. So I can imagine that’s even more the case now. 

My thanks to Josh Winters from Haylett RV of Coldwater, Michigan, for use of his photos. He also has a video of the Cherokee Alpha Wolf 26DBH-L which you can watch here.

Tony comes to RVTravel having worked at an RV dealership and been a life long RV enthusiast. He also has written the syndicated Curbside column about cars. You can find his writing here and at StressLessCamping where he also has a podcast about the RV life with his wife. 

These RV reviews are written based on information provided by the manufacturers along with our writer’s own research. We receive no money or other financial benefits from these reviews. They are intended only as a brief overview of the vehicle, not a comprehensive critique, which would require a thorough inspection and/or test drive.

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